Blade and/or rubber choice

Dear Alois and Jeff

I am beginner-intermediate player, and I am 13 I play in my basement with my dad, and I have no one else to play with that is serious about table tennis in my town. I don't have a coach, and I have watched your videos for help. I can only do a number of things, like a long pendulum sidespin serve, a forehand loop, a forehand flick, backhand chop, slice, and that's about it. I try to classify myself as a more loopy topspin player, (basically lots of topspin that fires but not with a lot of speed) and I do not have a good backhand, because I have no one to coach me on it. I have an ok racket, about 40$, but I want to step it up a notch that way I can have more spin and power so I can actually maybe perform a decent serve. There are so many rubbers and blades, but I do not know what a good combination of the two is, and I am on a tight budget. Do you have any suggestions for good blade and rubber combinations? 

Thanks, Luca

Hi Luca,

Firstly, depending on the bat you have there may be no need to change rackets.

First concentrate on the basic strokes.  It is important to be able to hit the ball on a hundred times in a row to start with.  Then you can think about upgrading your racket.

The racket we would recommend is the PingSkills Rook.